Free His (Hers #5) by Dawn Robertson Page B

know NOTHING Journey! He pushed me away. He threw me away like a piece of TRASH and if you think he won’t do the same to you, you’re wrong! He can’t love. He isn’t capable of it, Journey. If you think you can go down there, and the grass is going to be greener, you are wrong! Don’t do it to yourself. He is only going to hurt you just like he hurt me.” Paisley gets up from the bed and picks Cash up off of the floor.
    “Moving back to Woodstock was a fucking mistake. This place is like living in hell,” she says as she slings her son onto her hip and walks past Journey into the house.
    “Journey, listen to her. Don’t leave. Stay here with us. We need you and he needs time alone to get his shit together.” Star says. “I’ve talked to him almost daily since he has been down there and he is finally starting to get things right. If you go down there, it is only going to fuck everything up. Stay here. Ryker loves you and you know that.”
    Journey shrugs her shoulders, “But I don’t love him.”

Seven
    Present
    “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Levi asks as I grab my keys from the counter and pick up my Coach bag.
    “I think I need to do this alone. It’s only Maggie’s.” I make an excuse. I don’t want Levi to know exactly how nervous I am to meet this woman who very well could be my long lost biological sister. The thought alone is enough to send me into a panic attack, but I don’t let it. Being able to finally control that is a rewarding feeling too. I shouldn’t be so scared of building more meaningful relationships in my life. But, it seems like every time I let someone in, it is so much harder to let them go when the time comes. And the time always comes.
    “Are you sure, Seven?” Levi asks me again. I just nod in reply this time.
    “I’ll be fine.” I smile an unsure smile and walk out of the door.
    On the drive to Maggie’s, I think about all the details I know about Lyric already. She is young, only twenty two, and eight years my junior. Not much older than Journey. Young girls scare me. They can be so overly emotional, just like Journey was last night. It drives me crazy because I was never like that at her age. I was always able to keep my emotions in check. Kids these days!
    I wonder to myself if Journey knew her. Did they go to school together? Did Lyric’s mother stay in the area because of my father in Hopes that he would actually step up to the plate and be a real father to her daughter? Did my father even know Lyric existed? It’s a heartbreaking thought because I’ve seen women waste their entire lives on a man that would never invest in them as anything more than a piece of ass.
    It was just Did my father know Lyric existed? more family secrets. Shit they were all so good at. I jwish they were half as good at taking care of their kids as they had been at hiding shit. We would have all been so much better off. Especially Blu.
    As I mull over my thoughts, I find myself in the parking lot of Maggie’s. It’s a Monday night, so not too many people are out and about around town. I think that is one of the things I have found most comforting: the quiet of Woodstock. There are a handful of cars in the parking lot of the tiny diner. None familiar to me though, except the disaster Volkswagen in the corner that belongs to Cindy, the evening waitress.
    “Let’s do this.” I say aloud to myself as I finally climb from the car. My mouth is dry and my heart is racing. I keep telling myself I’m not nervous, but that is a lie. I begin to walk up the stairs of Maggie’s and immediately turn to walk back down them. I need to go home. This was all just a bad idea.
    Get over yourself, Seven. Walk through that door just like you would walk into the fuckin ’ boardroom. Don ’ t be a bitch, go meet this chick and get it over with! I laugh to myself, what a pussy I’ve become. I can’t even meet someone new without unraveling like an ugly Christmas sweater.
    A